Chickpeas, Lentils, and Beans: 5 Meatless Italian Dishes for Cozy Fall Nights

Beans, chickpeas, and lentils are what make a meatless dish feel like a full meal: they bring protein, fiber, and an earthy, creamy body that stands up to the heavier flavors of fall. Italian cooks lean on them all year, but they come into their own as the weather cools. These five recipes put them to work in two pastas and three soups.

Creamy Pasta and Chickpeas starts with precooked chickpeas, shallot, tomato paste, and sage. The ditalini cook right in the same pot, and a portion of the chickpeas is blended with some cooking liquid into a cream that goes back in at the end. A generous splash of oil and Grana Padano finish it, off the heat. Skip the cheese and it’s naturally vegan.

Pro tip: serve it right away. It thickens quickly as it sits, and a splash of water loosens the leftovers when you reheat them.

Pappardelle with Lentil and Mushroom Ragout swaps the meat in a Tuscan-style ragù for dried lentils and porcini. Carrot, celery, onion, thyme, and garlic soften first, then the lentils, tomato purée, and soaked mushrooms simmer for about 40 minutes. The pappardelle in the recipe are made with egg, so it’s vegetarian as published. Use eggless pasta and it’s vegan. A drizzle of unfiltered olive oil goes on right before serving.

Pro tip: strain the porcini soaking water through cheesecloth before adding it. It carries the mushroom flavor and leaves the grit behind.

Chickpea and Chestnut Soup is the most autumnal of the four, with versions across Abruzzo, Umbria, and Lunigiana. Chickpeas soak for 34 hours and boil for an hour, while chestnuts cook with bay leaves and fennel seeds, then get peeled, crumbled, and sautéed with garlic. Everything simmers together with a sprig of rosemary until the chestnuts partly dissolve into the soup. It’s vegan and gluten-free.

Pro tip: salt the chickpeas only once they’re cooked. Salting them earlier makes them hard, as the recipe warns.

Creamy Cannellini Bean Soup with Maltagliati is a Lombard classic as chef Cesare Battisti of Ratanà in Milan makes it. Onion, carrot, and celery soften slowly, then soaked cannellini simmer in vegetable broth with fennel seeds, juniper, and a bay leaf for about an hour and a half. The beans break down and thicken the soup on their own, with no cream. The maltagliati cook right in the pot, and each bowl gets a few drops of celery leaf oil.

Pro tip: for an even creamier soup, keep simmering. The recipe says the cooking can run up to 3 hours, adding broth as needed.

Pumpkin and Lentil Soup is a vegan soup that needs no soaking. Cubes of Delica pumpkin sauté with shallot and garlic, then simmer in vegetable broth for about 10 minutes. Tuscan kale and peeled red lentils go in next and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. A single tablespoon of chickpea flour gives it body without any dairy.

Pro tip: stir the chickpea flour in at the end and keep stirring for a few minutes. That’s what makes the soup thick and velvety. Keep the kale stalks too: simmered in a broth, they add flavor.

Legumes change character depending on what you do to them. Blended, chickpeas turn into a creamy pasta sauce. Simmered until they break down, cannellini thicken a soup the way cream would. Left whole, lentils hold their shape in a ragù, while peeled red lentils soften into a soup that a spoonful of chickpea flour thickens. Dried beans and chickpeas need a day’s soak, so plan ahead, or use canned chickpeas for the faster version.